Girls & "Grooming"

What an innocuous word "grooming" is for such an unspeakable process. In my far off youth "grooming" was the Lucy Clayton school of Deportment! Even now we talk about "good grooming" when referring to someone who is beautifully turned out, or someone who looks clean & presentable.

There needs to be another word for these predatory men, who deliberately set out to target very vulnerable  young girls, who are really looking for someone to love them, but aren't old enough or confident enough to discriminate between love & abuse. The word needs to reflect the horror of what is done to these girls & the fact that the men involved are behaving in such a despicable way. I can't immediately think of an appropriate word, but I do think we should try to find one. We need to communicate very graphically what we as individuals & a society think of these crimes, not pussy foot around with this inadequate euphemism.

We are just beginning to appreciate that this would appear to be a crime that is widespread. We probably have no idea of the numbers of girls & men involved. The children involved in this will quite probably never fully recover. It isn't just important that our police, schools & social services connect the dots. It's important that we name this crime and it's perpetrators appropriately & deal with them accordingly.